Free Where You Belong by Barbara Taylor Bradford Page A

bright blue eyes, usually so benign, had turned flinty and cold. “Don’t you dare question my friendship and loyalty!” he said. “And stop being so damned accusatory, Val. I haven’t done anything to hurt you, I’m only an innocent bystander. Now listen to me for a moment.”
    â€œI’m listening.”
    He took a deep breath and said, “Although Tony and I were close, he never confided in me about his private life, only ever hinted at things. I knew there were lots of women—” He cut himself off, looked chagrined, and eyed me carefully before continuing.
    I knew Jake would never willfully hurt me, and I guessed that he was now worrying he had just caused me a degree of pain. But that wasn’t so. “It’s okay, Jake, keep going,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring voice.
    He nodded. “Val, you have to face up to the fact that you weren’t the first, there were others before you. But he never left Fiona. She was always there in the background, his childhood sweetheart, his child bride, as he called her, and the mother of his children. She was inviolate in a sense. At least, that’s what I believed. As I told you, we never discussed his marriage or his love affairs, just as I didn’t talk about my personal life or my divorce from Sue Ellen. We touched on those things only in the most peripheral way. Very casually. Then he got involved with you last year, and eventually I began to think the unthinkable, that he was going to break up with Fiona. Not that he ever said so. Nor did he discuss you. However, when he came to Paris in July, he announced out of the blue that he was divorced—”
    â€œAnd you were gobsmacked, as the English say,” I interrupted with some acidity.
    Ignoring my sarcasm, Jake continued. “You’re right, in one sense, yes. Because he was such a dyed-in-the-wool Catholic, I’d always thought a divorce was out of the question. And then again, he’d done something I’d never expected him to do. He’d broken the mold. Mind you, Val, I understood on another level why he would want to be free. It was for you. Yes, I understood that aspect of it very well.”
    â€œHe lied to both of us. He wasn’t divorced.”
    â€œWe don’t really know that,” Jake answered in a reasonable tone.
    â€œOh yes we do. At least I do.”
    â€œI’d like you to consider a couple of things. First, think about Fiona and her demeanor today. She isn’t playing the grieving widow. She seems a bit sad, I’ll grant you that, but she’s not distraught. And second, she’s having only a small gathering at the house, just a few friends. In other words, she’s not making a big deal out of the memorial.”
    â€œI don’t think those are very good arguments.”
    â€œAre you making the assumption they were not divorced just because she talked about Tony’s possessions being at the house, and because Rory spoke about Tony as if he lived in the bosom of his family, and very happily so?”
    â€œPerhaps.”
    â€œBut those things don’t add up to Tony still being married to Fiona when he was killed. Think about it, Val. Even if they were divorced, no one would bring it up today, least of all his son. It just wouldn’t have been appropriate or very nice, and anyway, there was no reason to do so. It was a memorial service given by people who loved Tony, and the legal status of their marriage didn’t figure into it at all.”
    â€œI guess not,” I admitted. “On the other hand, there’s Fiona’s attitude toward me. If there’d been a divorce, why was she so nice to me? So pleasant?”
    â€œBecause she didn’t know you were involved with Tony, that’s why.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œPlease don’t make the mistake of using her attitude toward you as a yardstick, Val. That would be very flawed judgment on your